Although Santiago Calatrava’s design for 80 South Street has been laid to rest, the lot may soon see an arguably even more exciting tower covered in edible farms. Local architect Anthony Morali‘s proposal for the site features a mixed-use building that infuses vegetative garden space on different levels. The 300,000-square foot tower would be able to use its on-site farms to supply area eateries with farm-fresh veggies right from South Street Seaport.

Like Calatrava’s previous tower of stacked cubes, Morali’s design will have a look of segmentation. At its base, the building will be a hotel, ready to receive the influx of tourists to the South Street Seaport area. Atop the hotel, premier apartment spaces will offer near-waterfront residences to complete the mixed-use design.

Every ten stories, Morali’s design will feature “cut outs,” which will host gardens. Instead of terraces, the residents of Morali’s building will have multiple green parks in the sky. Shared 3,000 square foot gardens will bloom with flowers, trees and edibles, allowing residents to enjoy nature while still living in a tower.

Wonderful. Why, however, is there no crown? The quintessential aspect of Manhattan is the spire, the archetype the head, ennobled in aspiration toward the heavens-achievement, the sky, the spirit. materialists of the abstract, human aspiration and dreams held up against the star, the final heights pointing symbolically up in a choral of gleaming stainless steel singing, "higher".